Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Some pretty brutal stuff this week. And something subtle too. And then …. THE GAFFE ….

• Peter Swire, Wonk Room, McCain's Privacy Paper Gets His Own Record Wrong
• CNN Politics, Roberta McCain denies lawsuit against son's ex-wife — who you gonna believe, the McCains or those lying court documents?
• WashPo, McCain's Maverick Side: Grandpa Would Be Proud
  Mother's Father Made Fortune on Liquor, Gambling
• TampaBay Trib, Tropical storm costs McCain a million
• ThinkProgress, Jindal stumped when asked to name new 'big ideas' that McCain is proposing. See also Carpetbagger, The dearth of ‘new big ideas’
• ThinkProgress, McCain: ‘I Have Not Missed Any Crucial Vote’ On Energy Legislation (Hint: not even close to true )</li)
• Carpetbagger, McCain, judgment, and a response to the attacks of 9/11
• Carpetbagger, The candidates define ‘rich’. McCain says if you make under $5 million/year you are not 'rich'.
• Seeing the Forest, McCain's “Cross In Dirt” Story Questioned; see also Digby
• Russ Daggatt, georgia on my mind
  

  “You can be forgiven if you haven’t been following closely the fighting between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia. But there are two lessons that we all absolutely must take away from these events:

  1/ Under no circumstances should John McCain become president of the United States and you should do everything you can between now and November 4 to make sure that is the case.”)…

  This was one of those “3 a.m. moments” that this election was supposedly all about (before McCain put oil drilling and Paris Hilton front and center). And McCain failed it. Disastrously. Worse than our worst fears. It is now apparent that McCain would be even more impulsively belligerent than Bush and even more arrogant and unwise in heeding the war-mongering urgings of his neocons advisors.

• More reviews of McCain's tech plan. They are not kind.
  • “[McCain's Tech Plan] reads like some crotchety technophobe knocked over the bumper sticker wrack at an Ayn Rand Reading Revival and tried to rearrange them so it made a policy.” — Harold Feld
  • “Seriously, this is approaching Chuck Norris-level aggrandizement. How delusional does this guy have to be to imagine himself the hero of every situation he's in, to the point that he has to frame himself as a white knight on regulating packet shaping over the internet? I'm actually kind of impressed. Here are the rest of the sub-headings. They are of course not about technology, they are about John McCain.” — Matt Stoller
  • “The McCain worldview scares the hell out of me. Technology is complicated — and the solutions we need are fairly complex — they require an in depth understanding of the problem if you're going to formulate a solution. And McCain clearly doesn't understand some of the core problems… I'm still waiting for McCain to release a real technology plan — one that helps consumers and addresses the problems we're facing instead of protecting corporations and ignoring technology market failings.” — Sascha Meinrath
  • “McCain has delivered his tech policy. And it's clear: This election will determine whether America willfully becomes a third-world participant in the online economy and culture.” — David Weinberger
  • “In summary, the McCain plan says, “What's good for AT&T and Comcast and Cisco and the RIAA is good for America.” It's about their Internet, nor ours.” — David Isenberg
  • “We have already had 16 months of no policy in the technology realm and an admitted lack of knowledge by the candidate himself. Now the campaign can't even get the basics straight on something they absolutely should know — the candidate's own record.” — David Swire
  • “McCain declines to put net neutrality into law. Indeed, he declines to guarantee all Americans the right to obtain the information they want, communicate to everyone they want, send non-obscene and lawful information to anyone they want, over the Internet. Why? What's the hold-up? Why not assure this paradigm?” — Reed Hundt
  • “We see that millions of Americans are using the Internet to help each other out, and to improve the way government works. The Obama technology plan encourages civic engagement and openness. Unfortunately, the McCain plan adopts the Bush/Cheney approach, which promotes privileges for big companies at the expense of democracy.” — Craig Newmark
  • “Where Obama has specifics and new ideas, McCain has old ideas and positions that would be taken for granted in any Administration other than the one now ending. The reason is that McCain has a problem: he's out of step with the real world.” — Kevin Werbach
  • “McCain fails to understand that net neutrality only regulates the internet in the same way the First Amendment to the US Constitution regulates speech!! There are many different kinds of regulation, and this is one that protects the rights of individuals and an entire public good from being victimized by giant corporations.” — Jon Bartholomew
  • “The policy statement starts by addressing McCain's economic policies, which emphasize perpetuation of Bush's low tax on capital gains and reduction of the corporate tax rate…The fact that tax cuts landed at the top of the list reflects the prominent role that the Republican take on fiscal conservatism will play in McCain's policy decisions.” — Ryan Paul/Ars Technica
  • “The computing-challenged McCain, who said that he needs his wife to cut on the computer and check email for him (“I am an illiterate that has to rely on my wife for all the assistance that I can get.”), has released his technology “policy”. It sounds like another handout to corporations and a screw you to the rest of us.” — Pam Spaulding
  • “McCain's tech policy is one big giveaway to big corporations, an incoherent, muddled mess that does nothing to address the challenges America faces in vaulting our technological development into the 21st Century. Not only is he against net neutrality, he barely addresses things like wireless spectrum, broadband development, copyright law reform–and when he does, it's invariably in favor of the big business interests to which his campaign is utterly beholden.” — Martin Bosworth
  • “It's been widely reported that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is a self-admitted 'illiterate' when it comes to computers. But some have suggested that he could still put forward sound technology policy because he surrounds himself with tech-savvy advisers, such as former Hewlett-Packard chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina and former eBay president and CEO Meg Whitman. But it's unclear how much he is listening to them. Yesterday, McCain finally released his technology platform. (Until this time, 'technology' was not even listed in the Issues section of his campaign website.) His plan supposedly focuses on innovation, but in reality, it often repeats McCain's previous non-innovative positions, such as his opposition to net neutrality. — Amanda/Think Progress
  • “In outlining his policy, McCain reiterated his opposition to net neutrality, a hot-button issue for many bloggers and technology advocates…
    John McCain does not believe in prescriptive regulation like “net-neutrality,” but rather he believes that an open marketplace with a variety of consumer choices is the best deterrent against unfair practices.

    He also believes that if you put the internet in neutral, it'll stall.” — Mary Phillips-Sandy/Comedy Central

• Carpetbagger, McCain’s ‘cone of silence’ (it wasn't)
• Bark Bark Woof Woof describes McCain's media strategy as Preemptive Whining
• Little suspecting what was about to blow up, Brave New Films released McCain's Mansions:

• The Inq (UK), US presidential candidate is a pirate
• Carpetbagger, McCain takes credit for a bill he fought against (again)
• Kevin Drum explains how to attack John McCain: tell the truth. In Attacking John McCain he advises making these points:
  

  [W]hy not concentrate on character critiques that have some real grounding in reality? Just to give a few examples:

  • McCain is old and gets confused occasionally.

  • McCain is running an ugly, smear-based campaign.

  • McCain has a legendarily short fuse.

  • McCain is annoyingly self-righteous.

  • McCain's straight talk has evaporated in the face of his need to win evangelical votes.

  Does this sound like commander-in-chief material? I think not. With solid repetition, these can all be made into fairly devastating attacks that have the added benefit of (a) being true, and (b) sounding true. So use them early and often.

• Crooks & Liars, McCain lied about being in the cone of silence at Warren’s Forum… And where is Rick Warren’s outrage?
• The Matthew 25 Network released this ad, Families
  
  This is McCain bashing at its finest, subtly contrasting Obama's virtues with McCain's failings, without ever even mentioning them. (And that was before the next item below!)
• (Cindy) McCain family values, via NPR: Cindy McCain's Half Sister 'Angry' She's Hidden
• DNC, Five Million

• McCain's Iraq (cartoon)
• Via Crooks & Liars
  

• Jack Cafferty, CNN, Is McCain another George W. Bush?
• Kos, McCain Campaign “Clarifies” His Colorado Water Grab Statement
• Yglesias, The Hysteria-Based Foreign Policy
• McCain fellow POW Phillip Butler explains Why I Will Not Vote for John McCain (ok, it's from March, not this week, but I just saw it).
• Huffpo, Vilsack: McCain Puts Oil First, Not Country
• Crooks & Liars, McCain’s “Outrageous” Exaggerations: Voted for earmarks he now rails against
• Unbelievable: Washington Post, Sibling Revelation: An Overlooked Branch of Cindy McCain's Family Tree — Cindy McCain has another never-mentioned half-sister, who (like her father in his will) she also cut off from any share of the family millions. McCain family values in action. See also Ellroon at The American Street, Cindy McCain Lied, who asks quite reasonably, “Can you imagine what would have happened in the media if Michelle had lied like Cindy lied?”
• Kos, McCain Agrees That We Will Not Capture Bin Laden Without a Draft
• Obama Ad plays the Abramoff/Reed card,

• GWU Battleground poll finds that while 69% of voters are extremely or very comfortable with an African American candidate, only 30% are extremely or very comfortable with a 72 year old candidate. In addition, only 40% are extremely or very comfortable with a divorced candidate.
• Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain
• Christian Science Monitor discovers that Cindy McCain lied about meeting Mother Teresa:
  

  The story about Mother Teresa “convincing” Mrs. McCain to bring home two children from an orphanage in Bangladesh has been retold many times. Initially, the “About Cindy McCain” page on the McCain campaign website read: “Mother Teresa convinced Cindy to take two babies in need of medical attention to the United States. One of those babies is now their adopted daughter, 16-year-old Bridget McCain.”

  The media picked up the theme. A story earlier this year on ABC’s “Good Morning America” stated, “With Mother Teresa’s encouragement she brought her fourth child, Bridget, home.” An April 2008 Wall Street Journal profile states that Mother Teresa “implored” Cindy to bring the girls to the United States. Other articles say Cindy did it “at the behest” of Mother Teresa.

  But a source who was with McCain on that 1991 trip, and who asked that his name not be used because of prior legal dealings with the McCain family, says that Mother Teresa was not at the orphanage when Cindy decided to bring the two girls home.

  A 1991 article in the Arizona Star at the time of the adoption only mentions that the children were from an orphanage that was started by Mother Teresa. It does not mention a meeting with Mother Teresa or her asking McCain to bring the girls to the US.

  According to biographies of Mother Teresa, in 1991 she was in Mexico where she developed medical problems. From there, she went to a hospital in La Jolla, Calif.

  A McCain source acknowledged that Cindy McCain did not meet Mother Teresa during the 1991 trip to Bangladesh but said McCain did meet her later on, although the source could not say when or where. The campaign has since reworded the reference to the adoption on its website.

  The story may be worse than it seems; the adoption was during a period when Ms. McCain was addicted to pain pills; her drug dependency might have mixed her up on details. But it appears that's not when the story got embellished — see Mark Nickolas, Huffpo, The Anatomy of a Deception: How The McCains Changed Their Baby Adoption Story Just Before 2008 Bid

• ThinkProgress, Romney: McCain Doesn’t Speak For McCain When He Suggests Renegotiating The Colorado River Compact
• McCain's staff is so afraid of subjecting him to tough questions, they cut off the phone line to a reporter who started asking a hard one. (via Politico)
• ABC News, McCain Backs Away from Abortion Pledge — moderate maverick now says no abortions allowed ever, even in cases or rape or incest. (Which is, I suppose, a more logically consistent view if one believes life begins at conception. But it's not the public's view. And rather hard on the victims.)
• Jonathan Alter, Newsweek, The Smear Gap
• McCain's bad judgment: Judgment? McCain Says He'd Have Picked Cheney, Rumsfeld:

• Kos, “McCain: Simple, Direct, Deceitful”
• Politico, McCain unsure how many houses he owns. The correct answer, by the way, is The McCains own at least seven homes, maybe ten homes — or maybe even more, according to Exactly how many homes does McCain own?. Which is probably why they think “rich” starts at earning $5 million/year … (Cf. Crooks & Liars, $100 Million Man McCain: Rich Not Defined by Income)
• This one isn't going away: McCain can’t remember how many homes he owns. See also DNC:
  
  Daily Kos, McCain can't remember all his houses? The “I don't recall” routine is starting already!; Carpetbagger, McCain owns so many homes, he’s lost count.
• The Obama campaign has a video on McCain's houses that they call “Seven”:
  
  

• House flap manna from heaven for Obama, Dems
• Carpetbagger, The temperament question comes roaring back
• Carpetbagger, A noun, a verb, and ‘prisoner of war’
• Jeb Report, McCain: Still 'The One' For Lobbyists,

• McCain's limp response to the “homes” flap: McCain Camp Plays POW Card On House Gaffe (via HuffPo)
• McCains Bought Second Beach Condo At Around Time McCain Said Struggling Homeowners Needed To Skip Vacations
• Nitpicker, The McCains pay $270,000 per year for butlers and maids—that's $50,000 more than the median value of an American home.
• Open Left, Elite Base,

• Aaron Walker, Help John McCain Count His Houses!

• Did I mention that this gift will keep on giving? Kos, How many surrogates will speak to McCain's housing hoard? I forget.
• John McCain and his Houses:

• dengre, Daily Kos, McCain’s Abramoff Problem: CliffNotes Edition…
• The Fabulous Life of John McCain:

• Eye on Miami, The unknown houses of John McCain, by gimleteye, asks “Someone has the keys to John McCain's houses. They must have keys. Who has them? Do you know where the keys to your houses are?”
• Even Mr. Substance, aka Paul Krugman, approves of piling on the 'Houses' gaffe: see A Very Good Jeer
• Kos, Ahhh, this might be why the GOP is freaking out — how many houses does McCain's veep pick have? If it's Romney then his three puts the ticket's total well into double figures by any count (except McCain's: he'll admit to 'only' four of his own).
• Let's all pile on! TPM, Lifestyles of the Rich And Mavericky
• I love this idea: — joeyess, John McCain's House Keys:

• Next week's issue via Juan Cole's Informed Comment, Security Agreement Undermines McCain; Dulaimi Was Planting Bombs; Awakening Councils Targeted